DC Madam Attorney: Client Revelations; Cruz News?

The DC Madam’s attorney threatened April 8 to release the government and business names of her clients this week unless federal courts grant a hearing on his request to release those in a still-hidden clientele he claims as highly relevant to this year's presidential and congressional races.

Montgomery Blair Sibley, former attorney to the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey when she was notorious as “The DC Madam” during her federal prosecution a decade ago, said he will fight the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection this week of his case without a hearing.

“I’m going to release a list of the agencies,” Sibley told Alex Jones Infowars broadcast host David Knight. Sibley said he would disclose workplaces and “not specific names” of customers, whose identities remain suppressed under the still-pending order in May 2007 by Palfrey’s federal trial judge in Washington, DC.

Update: On Monday April 11, Sibley has started to identify those who called the escort service of his former client. In a court filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia obtained by WTOP, Montgomery Blair Sibley included the names of 174 of the entities that had dialed Palfrey’s business, as station WTOP reported in Ex-lawyer starts disclosing who called ‘D.C. Madam.’

The list of released entities includes the following government agencies: Department of Health and Human Services, FBI, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Internal Revenue Service, National Drug Intelligence Center, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Information Systems Command and Department of State.

Sibley has said his First Amendment rights are being violated when the courts will not allow even a hearing about why the public deserves to know the names of high officials and future leaders who used Palfrey’s prostitution service.

The Infowars broadcast generated other hard-hitting accusations and revelations in a week that saw the National Enquirer publish a front-page story suggesting that Sibley’s revelations would point to GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz as a customer of Palfrey’s defunct high-end “escort” service Pamela Martin & Associates.

But three of the women allegedly involved have denied the article's veracity. Enquirer readers and others claimed to have identified the three from other widely distributed photos that show their faces. One, CNN commentator Amanda Carpenter, was accused on air by a fellow CNN panelist but denied a romantic link to Cruz.

Skeptics immediately suggested that Cruz, who was married in 2001, could have been engaging in lawyer word games. Palfrey operated her service for 13 years until 2006, when her California home was raided. She was convicted of federal racketeering charges forcing her to face 55 years in prison. Before beginning a sentence, she died in 2008 by hanging under mysterious circumstances at her mother's home. Authorities ruled it suicide.

Alex Jones, the Texas-based founder of the Infowars broadcasts, hosted her on his show shortly before her death at age 52. Jones broadcast her statement that she would never kill herself.

Jones and investigative reporter Wayne Madsen ascribe her death to murder by CIA assassins whose colleagues use prostitution services at times for political blackmail and other sinister purposes. Other reporters and confidantes believe she killed herself out of depression in view of public apathy about the injustices in her case, including her long prospective prison sentence.

Sibley, shown with Palfrey on the cover of his 2009 book treatment of the case, has said all his information will become automatically public on four servers located around the world within 72 hours if he "disappears."

On the Infowars broadcast April 9, Madsen alleged that prostitution-related scandal and blackmail are pervasive among high government officials.

Madsen named as participants several of the most famous names in politics for the first time on the show. Madsen's many articles on the DC Madam scandal include more than a half dozen beginning in 2007 naming then Vice President Dick Cheney as one of her customers while he was Halliburton's president and CEO and while Palfrey's call girls worked with many others in political, defense, and intelligence sectors.

Madsen noted that Ted Cruz worked on the Bush-Cheney campaign and transition team, which used an office in McLean identified by Palfrey's now-public records as a customer site.

So, Madsen said in seconding Sibley's plea, the public needs to know the names before this year's elections.

A Cruz 'Christian Mafia' At Work?

Madsen's 13 books include The Christian Mafia, published last spring just as the 2016 presidential campaign was assuming its formative stage. It argues that the Christian Dominionist movement and its allies "feel politically empowered not only to take over permanently the U.S. Congress but also the White House and Supreme Court."

"Rafael Cruz, the Dominionist Cuban-born father of Texas Republican senator and 2016 presidential hopeful Ted Cruz," Madsen continued in the book's Foreword, "unabashedly proclaimed his son 'anointed' by God to bring about 'a great transfer of wealth' from 'wicked' non-believers to the righteous gentiles."

Madsen, a former Navy intelligence officer and analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA), warned readers that such seemingly fringe political passions have taken strong root in the nation's megachurches, U.S. intelligence agencies, and other bodies experienced in accomplishing their goals with minimal disclosure to followers of secretive rogue leaders or oversight by the mainstream media.

Madsen is shown below during panel discussion last year at John Jay University in New York City.

The analyst focused especially on the rapid political ascendancy of Cruz, noting also the similar rise of fellow Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who similarly espouses policies that he observed as generating special excitement in Iowa. This was nearly a year before the pair of first-term senators took two of the top three spots (along with Donald Trump) in the Iowa caucuses.

Regarding the mysterious Cruz family, Madsen continued:

It was the senior Cruz and his pastor, Larry Huch of New Beginnings Church in Irving, Texas, who helped provide Ted Cruz with much of his grassroots financial and volunteer support for his victorious 2012 Senate campaign.

2012 provided an important lesson for the hierarchy of the GOP: never underestimate the political strength of the Dominionists. Although President Obama defeated Mitt Romney, who had a sizeable backing from the Mormon Church in the general election, Cruz defeated the Republican Party's establishment candidate David Dewhurst by 57 to 43 percent in the GOP primary in Texas and went on to trounce his Democratic opponent in the general election.

In Madsen's text of The Christian Mafia, he drew on a column he first published in 2005 while the CIA-related Palfrey escort service was still in operation:

After several months of in-depth research and, at first, seemingly unrelated conversations with former high-level intelligence officials, lawyers, politicians, religious figures, other investigative journalists, and researchers, I can now report on a criminal conspiracy so vast and monstrous it defies imagination.

Using “Christian” groups as tax-exempt and cleverly camouflaged covers, wealthy right-wing businessmen and “clergy” have now assumed firm control over the biggest prize of all – the government of the United States of America.

First, some housekeeping is in order. My use of the term “Christian” is merely to clearly identify the criminal conspirators who have chosen to misuse their self-avowed devotion to Jesus Christ to advance a very un-Christian agenda. The term “Christian Mafia” is what several Washington politicians have termed the major conspirators and it is not intended to debase Christians or infer that they are criminals....

The most important element of this story is that a destructive religious movement has now achieved almost total control over the machinery of government of the United States – its executive, its legislature, several state governments, and soon, the federal judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Palfrey Case Overview

For the first time last week, Sibley revealed how he obtained possession of the names related to 815 phone records previously withheld from those researchers like Madsen, who has long reported that the secret to the scandal is that Palfrey had close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency and its network of backers and spy targets. The Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), a subscription service, published a guest column by Palfrey in 2007. She argued the same theme, albeit less specifically.

"We know the agencies have this information on the politicians," said Knight, the Infowars host. "We [in the public] need to know."

Today’s column and appendix treat the secret, selective, suppressed and oft-confusing news coverage of the scandal claims. This editor has explored it in cooperation with a number of other participants, including Madsen and Sibley, since Palfrey’s high-profile prosecution and trial nearly a decade ago.

Based on that study and the prevalence of similar situations affecting other major politicians, we believe the situation carries such huge risks for the public that it deserves treatment at this site, despite the inherently sordid topic.

To the contrary, the Twitter tag #CruzSexScandal has generated much-needed discussion. This author is scheduled to speak on the topic at the National Press Club Wednesday, April 13 in Washington, DC., with details appended to the end of the column.

Other Scandals Abound

As recent background, several other major sex scandals can be found on this site's April and March news reports involving the Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (shown in a file photo), 10 Navy contracting officers, the chief federal trial judge for the District of Columbia, a former prime minister of Russia, and the top UK regulator of that nation's news media. And all of those are just in the past month.

Of those recent revelations, the Alabama and Navy scandals illustrate especially well the current relevance of the DC Madam scandal.

In Alabama, the Republican "family values" governor Bentley was revealed on a tape recording made by his then wife of 50 years to have engaged in highly suggestive conversation with his top aide, Rebekah Caldwell Mason. The governor, 73, and Mason have traveled together more than 200 times, according to records that show also that Mason and her husband Jon Mason, director of Alabama's outreach to faith-based communities, have received more than a million dollars in Alabama taxpayer funds.

Separately under the headline Highest-ranking Navy officer yet sentenced in sex-for-secrets scandal, the Washington Post reported March 25, 2016 that "the highest-ranking U.S. Navy officer convicted so far in a massive bribery scandal was sentenced to almost four years in prison Friday for selling military secrets to an Asian defense contractor in exchange for prostitutes, stays at luxury hotel and other favors. Capt. Daniel Dusek....is one of 10 defendants charged so far in the case, perhaps the biggest corruption scandal in the Navy’s history."

Also last month, Chief District of Columbia Judge Richard Roberts resigned for unspecified health reasons. This was on the same day that a Utah woman filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting her decades ago when she was a 16-year-old eyewitness in a high-profile murder case that Roberts was prosecuting. Roberts, a Democrat and former career prosecutor, denied her allegation, as reported by the Washington Post in Chief judge of the District’s federal court retires as lawsuit accuses him of sexual assault.

Roberts (shown in an official photo) is also the judge who earlier this year denied Sibley's request to release client names from Palfrey's case.

Last year, Henry W. Vinson co-authored a book about a separate scandal, Confessions of a D.C. Madam. Vinson operated the largest male escort service in the city in the late 1980s before he was arrested and sentenced to years in prison. Vinson trafficked only in male escorts and Palfrey ran a separate and later operation providing only female escorts. Yet their tales are similar of sinister involvement by intelligence and law enforcement personnel in operations partly designed for political blackmail, even if most customers would not have suspected that background.

For the U.S. presidential race, the importance for the public goes far beyond the obvious hypocrisy if a self-righteous politician such as Cruz, who seeks to foster a government based on Christian teachings administered by moralists such as himself, is involved in the same kinds of scandals denounced on the campaign trail.

Separate from prostitution allegations, Madsen alleged in a column this week based on sources that Cruz had dressed as a female at Princeton University to engage in Peeping Tom activities in a sorority environment. The column on the Wayne Madsen Report was headlined: Cruz's sex scandal expands to cross-dressing capers at Princeton.

Before illustrating these points further, a warning is in order: Certitude in a sex scandal investigation is almost impossible absent a bedroom-style videotape or a verifiable confession from a participant.

Vinson described his operation as including such videotapes of Washington VIPs at orgies because of the sinister tactics and Dupont Circle mansion of his late business partner, Craig Spence, a GOP lobbyist shown in a file photo. Spence was well connected to intelligence agencies and political muscle before his death in 1989.

Spence and his henchmen filmed VIP mansion guests without their knowledge, Vinson wrote, except for those participants in an inner-circle of intelligence and law enforcement working with Spence. As a relative outsider whose day job was as a mortician, Vinson said he did not know the videos were used, only that his customers included some at the highest levels of the CIA. and other prominent government and media organizations.

In other situations, it is hard for an outsider to be totally certain of what occurred in a bedroom, of course. A couple could be meeting in a hotel room simply to converse, for example, or sharing a room to cut down on travel expenses. Thus, the possibility remains that suspects (including Cruz) might be the innocent victim of political sabotage, which increasingly pervade campaigns and other parts of American public life. Indeed, Cruz has accused the Trump campaign of concocting the two Enquirer stories as a political dirty trick.

The Palfrey Case

Startling courtroom irregularities and timid media coverage of well-connected prostitution suspects marked the Palfrey case from its beginning, as noted by commenters on the April 8 Infowars show.

Following Palfrey's arrest at her home in Vallejo, CA, she embarked on an aggressive defense designed to show that she was being singled out for ruthless prosecution to silence her about her service's VIP client list.

In 2007, it was revealed that the customers included U.S. Sen. David Vitter (shown in an official photo), a Louisiana Republican noted for his self-righteous "family values" rhetoric. Vitter confirmed his participation, as did two high-level appointees of the Bush administration. One was Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, 66, known for seeking to withhold U.S. funds from nations that allowed prostitution. The other was Pentagon adviser and author Harlan K. Ullman, 67.

The three promptly confessed publicly. Both administration officials resigned. Vitter continued in office. But his loss to a Democrat in Louisiana's 2015 governor's race can be attributed in large part to residual voter contempt for his hypocrisy in the escort scandal.

But other alleged clients remain hidden for the most part, with little sustained interest from the mainstream media. ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross received an initial batch of phone numbers and then said there was little newsworthy to report beyond the initial three officials noted above.

That's when Palfrey gave additional news to Madsen and Moldea, each working separately in part for Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt.

I assisted Madsen by arranging for the phone records to be computerized on a searchable Excel spread sheet in 2007 so he could more easily visit public libraries to use city directories to determine the identities.

He found that many of the phone numbers were the Northern Virginia environs of the CIA and other intelligence-related entities and their personnel. Madsen was familiar with such investigations after serving as a temporary FBI officer at the agency's request to investigate his Navy commanding officer on pedophilia charges in the 1980s.

He has since been presented as a national security expert on eight of the nine broadcast and cable networks until his commentaries became too critical of public officials. These days, he often publishes scoops that are ignored by the mainstream and pirated by others in the alternative media.

One was his three-part expose in the fall of 2006 reporting that then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL), the nation's third highest ranking official, was a gay pederast. Hastert this week begged for probation after pleading guilty to bank transactions felonies involved in his multi-millions in hush money to a victim.

Palfrey Speaks Out

Palfrey also put the records on the Internet, hoping thereby to generate public disclosure of client names and public support for her defense. On Oct. 27, 2007, Madsen published her guest column, Michael Mukasey – will you help me?in which she begged the then-Attorney General to intervene against the injustices and irregularities in her prosecution. She wrote:

55 years imprisonment and my entire life’s savings – this is what they want to take from me in my real life ‘David and Goliath’ struggle with the United States Department of Justice.

What particularly made and continues to make my case so unusual, actually bizarre, is no one ever has been charged similarly to me in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Over time, I have come to understand my case is truly one of a kind. Considering there are more adult service businesses than McDonald’s restaurants in operation in the overall vicinity, a virtual array of rich targets for the Feds to pursue – I and I alone – appear to be the only subject of their interest. Furthermore, none of the estimated 10,000 or so clients who patronized my agency or the almost 150 subcontracted women, who worked for me over the years have been charged.

Why me and why only me? In part, the answer may lie in the fact I operated a high-end, erotic outcall service continuously (a bit of an anomaly) for a 13-year period, from 1993 through 2006, in a part of the world laden with politically influential men; many with high level security clearances. Although, my firm routinely was patronized by the typical, garden-variety doctor, lawyer and perchance even, Indian chief; it nonetheless saw more than its share of the high and the mighty.

Protecting Palfrey Clients From Embarrassment

But her appeal to Mukasey confronted one of the many insider connections revealed by an in-depth look: The attorney general's son, Marc Mukasey, represented one of the main suspected clients, Ullman, a leading figure in Washington's war-making and media punditry. An official photo in 2007 shows the elder Mukasey, a New York City federal judge for 18 years before taking the Bush administration's top legal job.

Illustrating tight connections in the elite legal world, the key name partner of the younger Mukasey's firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, was Rudy Giuliani, the attorney general's longtime friend, and a former New York mayor and federal prosecutor. Powerful connections remain relevant. The Harvard Law-educated Cruz was law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and is now a favorite by many Washington insiders, albeit reluctantly, who want to block Donald Trump from the GOP 2016 presidential nomination.

Palfrey, acting as her own lawyer, filed papers in April 2007 saying she wanted to put on the stand such escort clients as Ullman, whom the Associated Press reported as the "primary author of a 1996 report that coined the phrase 'shock and awe,' which calls for a massive attack of precision air power that psychologically destroys an enemy's will to fight as much as it destroys the physical ability to fight." The term was popularized during the Bush administration as part of its public relations strategy for the Iraq War.

Ullman, whom Palfrey had insulted early in the case by saying her escorts found his sexual requests repulsive, told the media, as did his attorney, that her allegations were not worthy of comment. As it turned out, deft lawyering and judicial decisions ensure that alleged clients like Ullman were protected from the embarrassment that the part-time escorts endured at trial.

Many more connections to the war and media sectors surfaced. Palfrey's friend Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the third-ranking CIA official, was sentenced in 2009 to 39 months in prison for a corruption charge involving favors to a contractor. But media coverage was minimal regarding the remarkable specifics, which were reputed to include sex scandals and were mentioned only obliquely during his sentencing in Virginia's Eastern District federal court in Alexandria.

Among concurrent scandals, former CIA Director Porter Goss was identified also as attending "strip poker" events at the Watergate involving prostitutes and such high-profile politicians as California Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R). The latter was imprisoned in a major corruption scandal for $2.6 million in defense contract frauds.

Although Cunningham's scandal involved financial abuses so large as to generate at least two book-length treatments, the mainstream news media treated these matters as largely isolated events.

Meanwhile, Palfrey and Sibley begged the courts and the media in every possible way to allow her to mount a selective prosecution defense by showing she was being prosecuted to silence her because of the importance of her service's clients. Instead, the media focused on trivialities, titillating and the faux-glamor of bestowing on her the name "DC Madam," which she did not use herself. Indeed, she did not even live or work in Washington, DC, a fact routinely overlooked in news accounts.

From a legal standpoint, one major mystery never explored except in the alternative media has been why Palfrey's original trial judge, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, was replaced in the middle of her case by Judge James Robertson.

Kessler, shown in a file photo, had given indications that she might be open to Palfrey's desire to bring clients onto the witness stand in her defense.

But Robertson, a member until 2005 of the nation's ultra-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) that approves government surveillance requests, kept a tight lid any revelations regarding clients. He instead presided over a pathetic spectacle of female escorts, most part-timers with white collar jobs, being humiliated by an aggressive prosecution while the court enforced the privacy of male clients.

Robertson, shown in an official photo and now retired from the bench, resigned from resigned in protest from the FISA court in December, 2005 because, as he later testified, it "has turned into something like an administrative agency."

Cruz, his supporters and many in the media have correctly noted that Trump's friends include longtime GOP strategist and author Roger Stone, one of the nation's specialists for more than 40 years in high-level "opposition research" and similar strategies. These can include fanning publicity for sex scandals real or implied.

Yet Stone is not quoted in the March 23 story as a source, only for his opinion of the implications if the allegations against Cruz are true. Stone has described them also in an illuminating 13-minute radio interview on New York's AM 970 show in The Cuban Mistress Crisis with host Frank Morano.

It becomes easy to ascribe all bad news befalling Cruz and other candidates to political operatives like Stone. A better analytic approach is to appreciate that the officials are often responsible themselves even when significant networks are in place to encourage their human frailties -- including their ambitions, lusts and need for campaign cash -- and then profit from them.

Stone describes such events in his four recent investigative histories of two Democratic presidents (Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton) and three Republicans (Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush). The books, including his new his Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family, credibly report remarkable levels of elite deviance, including sex scandals among leaders of both parties occurring from the late 1980s through 2008.

Furthermore, the National Enquirer has been sued successfully only once for defamation, insiders say, out of its many years of publishing scandals each week.

Those familiar with its editorial process would surmise that friendship of its publisher with Trump would not make it rush into print without fact-checking such a story. After all, the recent $125 million Florida invasion of privacy verdict against Gawker for disparaging wrestler Hulk Hogan threatens any journalist tempted to publish demeaning and legally suspect material, even about public figures.

Infowars and Enquirer Revelations Last Week

After Palfrey's death (ruled a suicide by hanging), Sibley wrote in an insider's account, Why Just Her.

On the Infowars show, Sibley said he wrestles every day with his doubt whether she really killed herself. The other possibility, he said, is that she was murdered as part of an unusual effort to silence her for prostitution offenses that would have been commonplace in Washington if they did not involve so many high-ranking officials.

Madsen explained to the show's audience that Palfrey attempted without success to invoke at trial the Classified Information Procedures Act so that she could introduce classified information for her defense. He said she wanted to show she had worked in cooperation with CIA and other high-ranking federal officials.

Madsen added that Palfrey's use of escorts who were often older and more educated than their peers elsewhere helped enable complex interactions with customers, not simply sex. He noted also the dangers and pressures, which led to escort Brandi Britton's death by hanging, avoiding her trial testimony. Authorities ruled that Britton, a former University of Maryland professor and mother of two children, killed herself.

As one example of media self-censorship, Madsen's expert views on the Palfrey case have usually been omitted from mainstream reporting, even from in-depth articles like a 2008 Vanity Fair profile of Palfrey, The Oldest Profession. That article by contributing editor Vicky Ward exemplifies well-written coverage that sidesteps completely the sinister intelligence-related aspects at the core of the prosecution that those like Madsen and Sibley are able to describe.

Sibley revealed for the first time that the source of his claim that he has names relevant to today's politics. The source, he said, is a list of 815 names he obtained from Verizon in response to the flurry of subpoenas he issued on Palfrey's behalf to telephone companies and federal agencies as he tried to defend her from a massive number of federal prostitution-related charges before she was convicted and sentenced to 55 years in prison.

Sibley said the courts sought by ordering client names secret to restrict the aggressive defense she sought to mount whereby clients would be forced to testify. In the latest setback, he said Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (shown in an official photo) rejected his pleading this week.

Palfrey gave him (with Sibley's help) and reporters Dan Moldea and Brian Ross copies of client phone numbers before she posted her phone records on the Internet. Palfrey's and Sibley's tactics were regarded as controversial. He was replaced during parts of the criminal representation by Preston Burton. In 2008, Sibley's law license was suspended, largely arising from a custody dispute in Florida.

Sibley said his main argument currently is that whatever reasons existed in 2007 before trial to suppress client names no longer exists, especially when he says a number of them are relevant to high political office. He is seeking $25,000 for legal expenses via a GoFundMe campaign.

Since January, Sibley has urged courts to allow him to argue for release because at least one unidentified listed person or phone is prominent now in the presidential race. Other sources, including the hackers group Anonymous, and Madsen have been quoted as saying it is likely to be Cruz, by process of elimination, if Sibley in fact has a name or cellphone of a candidate.

Moldea stated that when he was in possession of "the list" in 2007 he was familiar with the names Clinton, Kasich, Sanders, and Trump. But back then, he had never heard of Ted Cruz, which does not necessarily mean that Cruz's name or phone are on any list.

[Editor's note: The paragraph above has been revised to clarify that neither Madsen nor Moldea have stated that he knows that Cruz or his identifying information are on Palfrey's records, including the 817 so-far unreleased names from Verizon.]

Madsen, however, has reported since 2007 that already public records show that he discovered from phone numbers provided by Palfrey to WMR that institutional phone numbers included Bush-Cheney Transition Team headquarters at 1616 Anderson Road in McLean, Virginia. In a column April 12, he reminded WMR readers, "The office building housing the headquarters was owned by the West Group, the real estate and property management company for whom Alice M. Starr, the wife of Monicagate Independent Prosecutor Kenneth Starr, served as Vice President for Marketing and Public Relations." Cruz worked on the transition team but it is not public whether further information indicates he was a Palfrey client.]

Evening Discussions With Palfrey

Sibley told the Infowars audience also that he, Palfrey and Madsen dined together "many, many times" during the litigation.

In a Madsen column April 5 amplified by his guest appearance that day with Alex Jones, Madsen wrote:

"Joining to George W. Bush campaign in 1999," Madsen wrote, "Cruz spent his time shuttling between Austin, Texas and Washington, DC. It was during the Bush campaign that Cruz met Heidi Nelson, another campaign worker who he would later marry....WMR has learned that it was between 1997 and 2001 that Cruz engaged in the services of Palfrey's escorts. Palfrey's services were certainly known to the Bush-Cheney campaign at the time."

Sibley said he plans to pursue the best compromise possible in the public interest: To release by mid-week next week many of the agencies or businesses of VIP clients, but withhold the client names if courts refuse a hearing on the case. He said only client names, and not their workplaces, are covered by the 2007 gag order.

A Big Catch!?

Beginning on June 1, 2007, Madsen has reported that Palfrey confided verbally that one of her clients was Dick Cheney in the years when he was president and CEO of Halliburton with a townhouse in McLean before he became the nation's vice president.

In Cheney hooker scandal gaining more attention, Madsen wrote on June 5, 2007, for example, that a Globe supermarket tabloid story about Cheney might break the media blackout on reporting of his involvement in the hooker scandal. Madsen continued:

As attorneys for "Washington Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey argue in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC today for the lifting of a court order that bars Palfrey and her attorneys from revealing the names of any more clients of escort service Pamela Martin & Associates, the media heat is being turned up on the most noted name on the client list -- Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Globe tabloid is featuring the Cheney "Hookergate" story on its front page in this week's issue.

It is noteworthy that not one media organization filed an amicus brief in support of Palfrey's request to lift the court order against her making the entire client list available to the media. WMR will be present in the courtroom this morning.

What's Next For Candidate Cruz?

More generally, the Infowars host David Knight opined on his April 8 afternoon show hosting Sibley and Madsen, "I find the National Enquirer to be far more credible than Ted Cruz. The National Enquirer has done this many many times."

Last week, Knight asked Madsen for his assessment of corruption in Washington and the results likely for Cruz.

"It’s a bad place," said Madsen. "People may have their [political] heroes" but many of those most respected from both parties are involved in hidden scandal.

The reporter told Knight on air that Sen. John McCain of Arizona (now chairman of the Senate's Armed Services Committee) and the late actor and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (R) were among Palfrey's clients. That represents an evolution for Madsen, who had been a $500 donor and the campaign coordinator in the DC suburb of Arlington for McCain when the senator was running for 2000 presidential nomination.

"We’re going to see a lot more information come up," the reporter predicted of Cruz, the GOP's second-leading presidential contender in delegate strength. "With Ted Cruz, it’s going to be political death by a thousand cuts."

Knight responded, "I saw the way he diverted these questions about his citizenship....He believes in the end justifies the means. I don’t find any Christianity in that."

Editor's note: This column was updated April 9 and 10 to include more background, including names of known and suspected Palfrey clients. Also, the appendix below of relevant commentaries includes a number from conservative websites.

The author spoke on this topic at the National Press Club on Wednesday, April 13, 2016. The gathering was before the McClendon Group, a speaker society located there fore the past quarter century.

Contact the author This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Amo Probos, Justice Thomas and My Supreme Court Application, Montgomery Blair Sibley, April 13, 2016. Today, Justice Clarence Thomas -- apparently disagreeing with Chief Justice John Roberts' denial of my application -- has referred my application for determination by the entire Supreme Court at their conference on April 29th. At least all of the Justices will be on record as to whether they will continue the muzzling of my First Amendment political speech.

WTOP (Washington, DC), Ex-lawyer starts disclosing who called ‘D.C. Madam,’ Neal Augenstein, April 11, 2016. Montgomery Blair Sibley has started to identify those who called the escort service of his former client, Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Saying he has “waited long enough,” the ex-lawyer of “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey has released some of the names of companies, government agencies and organizations that had called her escort service between 2000 and 2006. In a court filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia obtained by WTOP, Montgomery Blair Sibley included the names of 174 of the entities that had dialed Palfrey’s business, Pamela Martin & Associates.

No individuals’ names were listed. In 2007, as he mounted a defense in Palfrey’s racketeering case, Sibley sought, and was granted permission to identify 5,902 telephone numbers that showed up in Palfrey’s telephone records. In response to a subpoena, Verizon Wireless provided Sibley with a CD containing 817 account holders’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and home and business telephone numbers.

In April 2008, a federal jury in D.C. found Palfrey (shown in a file photo) guilty of racketeering, money laundering and mail fraud. Palfrey’s defense team never utilized — or shared — the information contained on the Verizon Wireless CD, because the judge eventually quashed the subpoena. Since February of this year, Sibley has been attempting to be released from a 2007 restraining order, which he says prevents him from releasing the records Palfrey entrusted to him in the early days of her defense against charges related to the escort service she ran in the nation’s capital from 1996 through 2007.

Sibley has said previously that information gleaned from the Verizon Wireless subpoena would “contain information relevant to the upcoming presidential election.” Sibley has not elaborated how the information might affect the 2016 election.

The list of released entities includes the following government agencies: Department of Health and Human Services, FBI, General Services Administration, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Internal Revenue Service, National Drug Intelligence Center, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Information Systems Command, Department of Commerce, Department of State, U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Forest Service. Others listed in the filing include the Archdiocese of Washington, Embassy of Japan, Bethlehem Steel, Constellation Energy/BGE, Hewlett-Packard, Johns Hopkins University, Washington Gas and several large law firms.

Sibley’s license to practice law was suspended in 2008 for three years by the D.C. Court of Appeal. In addition, Sibley has sued the former chief judge and court clerk for $1 million each.

Washington Post, The fall of Edward Lin, the Navy officer accused of espionage and hiring a prostitute, Dan Lamothe, April 11, 2016. The lieutenant commander is one of a handful of active-duty service members to face espionage charges in the last few decades. Edward Lin faces charges of espionage, attempted espionage and patronizing a prostitute in a rare spying case involving an active-duty member of the U.S. military. It’s a steep fall for a lieutenant commander who has served on some of the Navy’s most advanced maritime surveillance aircraft.

A layer of secrecy shrouds Lin’s case: The Navy examined charges against him Friday during a preliminary hearing in Norfolk, Va., but provided little advance notice about it — aside from notice on a docket temporarily posted on a Navy website. The proceeding, known as an “Article 32” hearing, examines the facts of the case and is open to the public, but Navy officials have declined to comment on the case or identify Lin before or afterward, citing concerns about his privacy, said Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a service spokesman.

U.S. News & World Report, Other D.C. Madam Associates Discuss Potential Election Bombshell, Steven Nelson, April 7, 2016. A former attorney for "D.C. madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey kicked off a viral news speculation frenzy last week, claiming he possesses previously unreleased phone records that are "very relevant" to the presidential election and that he's prepared to risk jail to release them.

Conversations with people close to the high-profile escort case corroborate some claims from Montgomery Blair Sibley about the nature of documents he says he possesses but have added uncertainty as to whether a presidential candidate actually is identified. Sibley says he has two sets of records that he wants court permission to release: a set of raw phone records from Palfrey's escort service with an estimated 5,000 unique numbers and a Verizon Wireless subpoena response with names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 815 of those callers.

Amo Probos (Sibley blog), A Second Bite of the Supreme Court Apple, Montgomery Blair Sibley, April 6, 2016. Yesterday, Chief Justice Roberts denied my Application to be relieved from the Restraining Order which prohibits me from releasing any of the D.C. Madam Jeane Palfrey's Escort Service Records. This follows: (i) the refusal of the U.S. District Court to allow me to file a Motion to Modify that Restraining Order and (ii) the refusal of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to rule upon my Petition which sought to Order the District Court Clerk to file my Motion to Modify.

Before I simply release the records in my possession, I must exhaust all judicial remedies. Accordingly, invoking Supreme Court Rule 22.4, I am renewing the Application with a second Justice, the estimable Clarence Thomas. I will wait to see what he says before taking my next step.

NBC News, SCOTUS Denies Request from D.C. Madam's Attorney to Release Info, Staff report, April 5, 2016. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request from a lawyer who once represented a woman known as the "DC Madam" to release records from her famous escort service. Those records include such sensitive information as customer names, Social Security numbers and addresses — information the lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, has said could affect the 2016 presidential election.

Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), Cruz's sex scandal expands to cross-dressing capers at Princeton, Wayne Madsen (shown at left), April 5, 2016 (Subscription required; Excerpted here by permission). Amid several published reports that identify Texas Senator and GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz as a one-time client of the late Deborah Jean Palfrey's sex escort service Pamela Martin & Associates are now multi-sourced reports that Cruz, while a student at Princeton, donned women's clothes in order to sneak into campus sorority houses in order to engage in "peeping Tom" activities on the female residents, including when they were walking to and from the showers.

Cruz's reputation as a pervert who spied on women in sorority houses earned him a reputation as a "creep" on campus and a definite "ick factor" surrounded him during his years at Princeton, according to knowledgeable sources contacted by WMR.

Alex Jones Channel, Ted Cruz A Cross-Dressing Peeping Tom? Alex Jones, April 5, 2016. Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen gives his take on the election and on the overwhelming evidence that points to the murder of DC Madam.

At a town hall in Madison, Wisconsin, moderator Kelly asked Cruz if he has ever committed adultery.

"I have not," the Texas senator replied. "That attack was complete and utter garbage. It was complete lies. And it came from Donald Trump and his henchmen. Those reports, they're not a little bit true, not slightly true."

Although Trump previously denied any involvement in the National Enquirer report published in late March, Cruz maintains that the billionaire businessman is to blame, adding on Monday that the Trump campaign has been circulating the report. "It's completely made-up nonsense. It's simply not true," Cruz said of the article.

"I have always been faithful to my wife. I love my wife. She's my best friend in the world. This is the kind of garbage the Trump campaign engages in. You know why? Because they can't debate substance."

Cruz added that the only person quoted in the report is Trump's former political adviser Roger Stone, who, Kelly pointed out, parted ways with the real estate mogul in August. Nevertheless, Cruz claims Stone is now "the campaign's attack dog, spreading lies and personal smears," Yahoo News reports.

Montgomery Blair Sibley, a former lawyer for madam Deborah Palfrey, has filed a dramatic appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for permission to publish her unconventional “black book,” which consists of some 15,000 pages of phone records and calls to clients, as well as their calls requesting the $300-an-hour services from her gaggle of beautiful hookers! Sibley told the National Enquirer that “time is of the essence” to release the list because one or more of the phone numbers would provide bombshell information that is “relevant to voters before they cast their ballot.”

He currently is barred by a lower court order from releasing the records or naming names.

But Radar has learned the National Enquirer will this week report its findings of yet another exhaustive and investigative probe that will quote journalist detectives who claim the mystery candidate almost certainly “has to be Cruz.” Investigator Wayne Madsen, who was on a team of reporters hired by Hustler Magazine’s boisterous owner Larry Flynt to investigate the madam, told the Enquirer that Cruz (shown in a file photo) should be concerned!

“If Montgomery Sibley has what he says he has, it has to be Cruz,” he said in an interview — an advance copy of which was provided to Radar. “Going on what I know about the other male candidates still in the race, it isn’t any of them, and Palfrey didn’t provide call boys, so it wasn’t Hillary.”

U.S. News and World Report, D.C. Madam's Attorney Says Election Bombshell Already Online, Steven Nelson, March 31, 2016. The colorful litigator who represented the late “D.C. madam” Deborah Palfrey and threatened this week to release call logs of his former client that he says are “very relevant” to the 2016 presidential election tells U.S. News those records already are digitized and posted online.

Montgomery Blair Sibley says the records will become public if he fails to reset a 72-hour countdown clock, which could cut short his soft two-week ultimatum for federal courts to consider lifting a 2007 gag order that covers the records, lest he deem that order void. The countdown clock is a safeguard, Sibley says, that ensures that if he disappears the records will be published. Inevitable release, he says, may also disincentivize violent acts against him to prevent their disclosure.

Deborah Jean Palfrey of Vallejo, Calif., right, accompanied by her attorney Montgomery Blair Sibley, left, leaves the federal court in Washington, DC, as portrayed on the cover of Sibley's book about the case, Why Just Her.

WTOP (Washington, DC), Ex-lawyer asks Supreme Court to allow release of ‘D.C. Madam’ phone records — or else, Neal Augenstein, March 28, 2016. The former attorney for the “D.C. Madam” has asked the United States Supreme Court to allow him to release records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s escort service, including customer names, addresses and Social Security numbers, because they allegedly could affect the 2016 presidential election.

In an application to the high court, filed Monday, Montgomery Blair Sibley is asking to be released from a judge’s 2007 restraining order which prohibited him from sharing Palfrey’s telephone records, during the much-publicized run-up to her federal trial for racketeering, money laundering and mail fraud. And, if the Supreme Court won’t hear his argument, Sibley says he will release the identifying information of Palfrey’s customers.

Sibley, whose license to practice law in Washington, D.C. was suspended for three years in 2008, has sued former Chief Judge Richard Roberts of D.C.’s U.S. District Court, and Clerk of the Court Angela Caesar for $1 million each, claiming his First and Fifth Amendment rights have been violated because he has been unable to argue for the release of Palfrey’s records. Sibley’s civil case has yet to be heard in D.C. Superior Court. He claims Roberts has ordered Caesar to return his motions without filing them in court records.

Roberts suddenly retired two weeks ago, the day he was sued for sexual abuse by a Utah woman. Without providing any specifics, Sibley has said information found within Palfrey’s records could affect the upcoming presidential election.

Liberty News Now, The Truth Behind Ted Cruz’s Sex Scandal, Morgan Mayhew, March 28, 2016. The National Enquirer dropped a bombshell before Easter with the allegations that Ted Cruz has had multiple affairs, five to be exact, with his own staff, one teacher and one prostitute. To add even more intrigue to the story, one of the alleged mistresses was none other than Trump’s own spokeswoman (and former Cruz staffer) Katrina Pierson.

While the mainstream media, including Fox News, has avoided discussing the sex scandal, One American News Network interviewed Katrina Pierson who claimed the Enquirer story as “totally false.” Ditto for another alleged Cruz mistress, Amanda Carpenter, who claimed the story is “categorically false.” Carpenter worked for Senator Cruz from January 2013 to July of 2015. Carpenter had been promoted to communications director months before her resignation.

The third politico alleged to have an affair with Cruz is Carly Fiorina’s former deputy campaign manager, Sarah Isgur Flores. Sarah worked as the political director for “Texans for Cruz” from 2009 to 2010. The backstory regarding Ms. Flores is the alleged “hush money” paid to Carly Fiorina’s campaign. FEC reports show that an unconventional $500,000 transfer was made from Cruz’s Super PAC, Keep the Promise, to the PAC, Carly for America. At the time of the transfer, Keep the Promise’s president, Kellyanne Conway stated, “Keep the Promise I made the donation in June to Ms. Fiorina at that time because we thought she had important things to say that weren’t being heard, including her poignant and effective criticism of Mrs. Clinton.” The very large transaction between PAC’s supporting active candidates was highly unusual and even triggered an inquiry by the Federal Election Commission.

Just days before the Enquirer broke the sex scandal story, the hacking group Anonymous released a video warning to Cruz, “Have you heard of the expression ‘candy wrappers’? Do you recall visiting prostitutes? Mr. Cruz we are now demanding you exit this race immediately or Anonymous will release all of the information we have found.”

While Pierson and Carpenter deny the allegations, the hacking group claims to have information on the “candy wrapper” they claim is a Cuban prostitute. A reporter from the Washington Times, Drew Johnson, also claims personal knowledge of two of the five affairs. The Washington Times disavowed their association with Johnson, leading to the reporter to post his most recent paycheck from the publication:

While much more information is forthcoming . . . including the identity of the Austin prostitute who reportedly shared Ted Cruz as a client . . . the veracity of the National Enquirer story remains up in the air.

Inquisitor, Washington Times Fires Writer For Confirming Ted Cruz Sex Scandal, Claimed At Least Two Mistresses Accurate, Tara West, March 27, 2016. A Washington Times writer was abruptly fired after he “came clean” on Twitter about the Ted Cruz sex scandal. The writer, Drew Johnson, confirmed via his Twitter account that there was some truth to the Ted Cruz affair rumors noting that he knows at least two of the mistresses named by the National Enquirer are accurate. The columnist says that other media outlets, columnists and reporters knew about the affairs, but refused to run the story.

The National Enquirer has caused a media firestorm after publishing a cover story about GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz and a series of alleged mistresses. The publication is a known tabloid, but despite its reputation for the sensational, has broke a number of big stories related to political candidates and high profile cases in the past. For example, the National Enquirer was the first to break stories about Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards before they were confirmed by the mainstream media. Therefore, when the tabloid decided to run with a story about Ted Cruz and his rumored “five mistresses,” it left some questioning if the bombshell report could be true.

In response to the story in question, a Washington Times columnist responded that it is not entirely bogus as from “what he knows” at least two of the mistresses outlined in the report are “accurate.”

New York Magazine, National Enquirer — Which Just Happens to Have Ties to Trump — Says Cruz Has Had 5 Affairs, Jen Kirby, March 25, 2016. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have been beefing back and forth about their wives this week, which makes for rather interesting timing for a salacious report in the National Enquirer. The new issue of the infamous tabloid out this week has the SHOCKING CLAIMS that "pervy" Ted Cruz has had at least five mistresses on the side. The tabloid prints five photos, each with a black bar across the eyes of the alleged Cruz lovers, a phrase that doesn't at all feel natural to write.

The juicy details aren't available online, but according to the catnip teasers the National Enquirer has posted [Shocking Claims: Pervy Ted Cruz Caught Cheating — With 5 Secret Mistresses!] at least one of the women is a "foxy political consultant and a high-placed D.C. attorney." That should make you either more skeptical (usually these stories involve women who are marginal to the political process) or less skeptical (Alabama governor Robert Bentley, just this week, was revealed to have something going on with a top aide).

The heated argument started after Donald Trump's character was called into question when Adriana Cohen, the Trump supporter, charged Carpenter of being one of the several women who have had affairs with Cruz.

"If we're going call Donald Trump's character into question, I would like Ted Cruz to issue a statement whether or not the National Enquirer story is true, that he's had affairs with many women, including you were named, Amanda. Will you denounce or confirm?" Cohen asked.

Cruz Press Conference: Cruz called a press conference March 25 to call the allegations untrue "garbage" and denounce Trump as responsible for planting the story, but not offering proof. Trump denied responsibility.

Conservative Outfitters, 8 Things You Need To Know About Ted Cruz's Sex Scandal, Staff report, March 25, 2016. The National Enquirer just dropped a bombshell on the Cruz campaign and the internet exploded overnight. Reports claim investigators found Ted Cruz allegedly had an affair with five different women. The publication did not name names and only printed pixelated photos. Internet users on Twitter, Reddit and 4chan quickly went to work to determine the identity of all five women. 8 things you need to know:

1. The National Enquirer Was Right About John Edwards, Tiger Woods and Jesse Jackson2. Washington Times Reporter Confirms Story3. Breitbart Had Story But Chose Not To Publish 4. #CruzSexScandal Is Trending on Twitter5. The Internet Claims To Have Identified Who Most Of The Women Are. Etc....

Washington Post, Cruz denies adultery allegations, blames ‘garbage’ on Trump, David Weigel and Katie Zezima, March 25, 2016. Sen. Ted Cruz accused his GOP rival of hawking a false narrative to a tabloid as the presidential candidates feuded over their wives. Donald Trump said he had nothing to do with it. Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday vehemently denied a story in the National Enquirer that accused him of extramarital affairs and blamed rival Donald Trump for planting “complete and utter lies” in the tabloid.

Cruz accused Trump and his associates of hawking a false story that the married Texas senator had sexual relationships with five unidentified women. The allegations come amid a nasty feud between the two candidates over their wives that has dominated the Republican presidential race this week. “Let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage,” Cruz told reporters after a rally at a parking-cone factory here, bringing up the subject himself. “It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.”

Trump, in a statement, said he had “no idea” whether the story was true and said he had nothing to do with it. “Ted Cruz’s problem with the National Enquirer is his and his alone, and while they were right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards, and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz,” Trump wrote.

Daily Beast, Sleazy Does It, Ted Cruz ‘Affair’ Rumors Peddled by Marco Rubio’s Allies, Asawin Suebsaeng and Betsy Woodruff, March 25, 2016. The senator accused Donald Trump of planting a National Enquirer sex scandal story. If that’s true, Trump wasn’t the only Cruz opponent trying to traffic in smears. A half-dozen GOP operatives and media figures tell The Daily Beast that Cruz’s opponents have been pushing charges of adultery for at least six months now—and that allies of former GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio were involved in spreading the smears.

For months and months, anti-Cruz operatives have pitched a variety of #CruzSexScandal stories to a host of prominent national publications, according to Republican operatives and media figures. The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, Politico, and ABC News — reporters at all those outlets heard some version of the Cruz-is-cheating story. None of them decided to run with rumors. Those publications’ representatives all declined to provide on-the-record comments when The Daily Beast reached out for this article.

Washington Post, Highest-ranking Navy officer yet sentenced in sex-for-secrets scandal, Craig Whitlock, March 25, 2016. The highest-ranking U.S. Navy officer convicted so far in a massive bribery scandal was sentenced to almost four years in prison Friday for selling military secrets to an Asian defense contractor in exchange for prostitutes, stays at luxury hotel and other favors. Capt. Daniel Dusek, the former commander of the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship, received a 46-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay $100,000 in fines and restitution during a hearing in federal court in San Diego.

Dusek is one of 10 defendants charged so far in the case, perhaps the biggest corruption scandal in the Navy’s history. Two sailors have already received prison terms, while two other Navy officers and a senior agent for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Federal prosecutors have said more criminal charges are likely. The Navy has also censured three admirals for ethics violations and suspended the security clearances for two others, including the chief of naval intelligence.

In a statement filed in federal court this week, Dusek admitted to “succumbing to the temptations before me” by giving classified information to Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a Singapore-based contractor, as part of a scheme to fleece the Navy of tens of millions of dollars. “I have disgraced myself and the Navy that I love and now end my naval career in utter humiliation,” Dusek wrote. Dusek also hinted that higher-ranking officers were on the take and that the relationship between the contractor and Navy brass was even more sordid than previously known.

In his statement, he said a “senior officer who was a friend and a mentor” introduced him in 2010 to the owner of Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Leonard Glenn Francis, a charismatic figure known in Navy circles as “Fat Leonard.” The unnamed senior officer described Francis as “a great friend of the Navy” and influenced Dusek to trust and work closely with the contractor. Francis pleaded guilty to bribery charges last year and is cooperating with U.S. investigators. He has admitted to systematically bribing “scores” of Navy personnel by plying them with prostitutes, envelopes of cash, stays at resorts and Epicurean feasts when their ships docked at ports throughout Asia.

Breitbart, Ted Cruz sex scandal story leaked to National Enquirer by Marco Rubio “ally,” not Donald Trump, report says, Brendan Gauthier, March 25, 2016. But why would Rubio, with nothing left at stake, sponsor a smear campaign against the one GOPer who can stop Trump? Maybe Donald Trump isn’t behind the Ted Cruz “sex scandal” story leak to the National Enquirer after all. According to The Daily Beast, “for months and months, anti-Cruz operatives have pitched a variety of #CruzSexScandal stories to a host of prominent national publications.”

One such outlet was Breitbart News, which was shown “a compilation video of Cruz and a woman other than his wife coming out of the Capitol Grille restaurant and a hotel on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” a source inside the publication told The Daily Beast. (Leave it to a politician to keep a standardized booty call schedule.) The Breitbart source confirmed that they’d received the video from “a Rubio ally,” but ultimately decided against running the story because, “There was no way to verify the claims.”

WND, Savage threatens to dump Trump over Cruz 'sex scandal,' Douglas Ernst, March 25, 2016. 'I don't like this kind of smear.' One of Donald Trump's most ardent supporters says he may walk away from the billionaire over the alleged "sex scandal" story published by the National Enquirer on Thursday. Radio host Michael Savage told his listeners on Friday that Trump's ties to National Enquirer CEO David Pecker raises red flags as to who started rumors claiming Sen. Ted Cruz cheated on his wife, Heidi, with five women. The "Savage Nation" host said Pecker is known to fly on Trump's jet from New York to Florida, which is why the Republican front-runner must condemn the story.

The National Enquirer is indeed a tabloid – and as such there are various grains of salt that should be applied when reviewing anything they present. However, that said, they have been unfortunately accurate for more than a few presidential hopefuls: Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards to name a few of the more infamous examples.

Beyond the story itself there’s a few presenting elements which point to a high degree of confidence, and as a consequence ‘legal avoidance’, on the publishers’ part. Firstly, they post pictures of the collective mistresses. NE [National Enquirer] would never legally “go there” if they did not hold a very reasonable certainty the outlined players were factually part of the story. Secondly, there’s at least one face in the group that is easily identifiable.

When you accept the NE editorial/legal requirement for research and attributed comment prior to publication, you recognize there is more than a strong probability each of the outlined group (pictured) was contacted prior to publication; and one of those is very close to the Donald Trump campaign. Ergo, it’s entirely likely presidential candidate Donald Trump knew this story was coming out.

Which puts candidate Trump’s prior discussion and opinion of media libel in a strangely much larger, and more substantially prescient, aspect.

Other Current Political Scandals

Washington Post, Prosecutors offer details on Dennis Hastert’s alleged sexual abuse of teenagers, Matt Zapotosky, April 8, 2016. Federal prosecutors on Friday detailed some of the lurid allegations of sexual misconduct against former U.S. House speaker Dennis Hastert and asked a federal judge to subject the Illinois Republican to a sex offender evaluation. In a memo in advance of an April 27 sentencing hearing, prosecutors spelled out in graphic detail how Hastert sexually molested or inappropriately touched five teenagers who trusted him as their wrestling coach. And as Hastert rose to power, believing that his wrongdoing would never be made public, his victims struggled with the effects of the abuse, prosecutors wrote.

Hastert, 74, pleaded guilty last year to violating federal banking laws, admitting in a deal with prosecutors that he withdrew money from banks in increments low enough to avoid mandatory reporting requirements. That charge, though, always belied the case’s actual underpinnings. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had already agreed that federal sentencing guidelines in the case called for a prison term between zero and six months, and prosecutors recommended a term inside that range Friday, coupled with a sex offender assessment. A federal judge is not bound by that recommendation and could sentence Hastert to as much as five years in prison.

In their memo, prosecutors also spelled out for the first time how investigators came to learn of the abuse. In 2012, prosecutors wrote, a bank official noticed the former House speaker had made seven $50,000 cash withdrawals over a two-year stretch.

Grainy bedroom footage purports to show former Kremlin prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, 58 and prime minister from 2000-2004, with playwright and activist Natalya Pelevine, 39, in a Moscow apartment. The release by Kremlin-friendly television channel NTV is apparently aimed at destroying one of the few opposition leaders seen as remotely capable of being an alternative president to Putin.

It appeared to have been filmed by a hidden camera in a dressing table in the bedroom of a Moscow flat apparently used for covert liaisons between the couple. Who was behind the filming is unclear, but the purpose was evidently to embarrass the opposition figures who are also heard savaging other so-called allies in an anti-Putin front ahead of upcoming elections. [Kasyanov is a chairman of the People's Freedom Party, the leader of People's Democratic Union, and a critic of Putin.]

Pelevine (shown in her Twitter photo) has been active in the Russian opposition for around a decade. Soviet-born, her parents emigrated to Britain before the collapse of the USSR when she was a child. She has appeared as a political commentator on has appeared as a political commentator on Al Jazeera, RTVi, PressTV, the BBC and other TV and radio channels.

Ms. Pelevine, who came to the UK as a child and who has an art history degree from the University of East London, said that the broadcasting of the intimate images by pro-Kremlin television channel NTV appeared to be an attempt to discredit the former premier and finance minister, who is seen as one of the few credible potential challengers to President Putin.

In the broadcast, NTV claimed Ms. Pelevine traveled regularly to the US for meetings with former presidential candidate Senator John McCain and investment banker William Browder.

Byline, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale caught in prostitution scandal, Nick Mutch, April 1, 2016. (JIP Editor's note: John Whittingdale, shown in a screenshot from last year, regulates the United Kingdom's news media, among other responsibilities as culture minister in the Conservative Party administration of Prime Minister David Cameron. Byline is a crowd-funded journalism site launched in 2015 to report otherwise suppressed or under-reported news stories.)

Culture Secretary has questions to answer over whether he exposed himself to blackmail over his relationship with a dominatrix. Byline can reveal a year-long relationship between a senior figure in David Cameron’s government and a dominatrix which potentially jeopardized government security and left ministers open to blackmail. John Whittingdale, now Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, was involved in a long relationship between at least November 2013 and January 2015 with Olivia King, a well-known escort who specializes in domination and sado-masochistic practices. It is unknown whether the relationship continues.

During this period, Whittingdale was accompanied by her at locations including the MTV Awards in Amsterdam in November 2013, the SportBall, attended by Kate Middleton, also in December 2013, and a New Years Eve party at the House of Commons in 2014-15. The photos [with this story on the Byline site] were taken the night following the SportBall. During this period, his movements and private conversations with her were well known by the tabloid press, allowing photographs of the couple to be photographed at these locations.

Whittingdale’s relationship has been an open secret in Westminster and Fleet Street circles, and major tabloid and broadsheet papers, including The Mail on Sunday and The Independent, have undertaken extensive investigations and written stories, only to have the stories abandoned at the last minute. The editor of The Independent, Amol Rajan decided in October that he had made the decision to not run the story on ‘editorial grounds.’

However, the previous day, Rajan had met with Whittingdale and Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre at the Society of Editors Conference in October 2015. When [Whittingdale] delivered the keynote address, he stated that he was minded not to implement a major recommendation of the Leveson inquiry and passed by Parliament as part of the Courts and Crimes Act.

We can also reveal that while she was involved with Whittingdale, Ms. King was also involved in a relationship with a member of the London underworld who has a previous firearms conviction. Whittingdale’s relationships with prostitutes are said to be well known in the London underworld and could potentially leave him exposed to blackmail considering his senior position in the government.

John Whittingdale has questions to answer over whether the possession of this story by a number of media publications ever influenced his political actions as Culture Secretary and when he was Chair of the Culture, Media and Sports Committee. This is the first installment of a developing story.

WJHL (Johnson City, TN) - WKRG (Mobile, AL), 2 criminal investigations launched into Ala. Gov. Bentley’s relationship with adviser, Peter Albrecht, March 28, 2016. 14 times in 43 minutes, Gov. Robert Bentley tells Rebekah Mason that he loves her in the complete recorded phone conversation between the two from August, 2014. Last week the most sexually explicit moments of the recordings were released, but today the full recording was released by the website Yellowhammer.

Alabama Political Reporter, Bentley Ordered Law Enforcement to Target Critics, Bill Britt, March 28, 2016. Gov. Robert Bentley pressured law enforcement officers to use federal and state resources to target those critical of his relationship with senior advisor Rebekah Caldwell Mason, according to high ranking officers and staff. In an effort to find potentially damaging information on those who spoke out against the couple, Bentley instructed top law enforcement agents to investigate private citizens, in direct conflict with the law, said those close to the matter.(

Two individuals with detailed knowledge of the incidents say Bentley ordered the use of the National Crime Information Center, (NCIC) and the Law Enforcement Tactical System (LETS) to find any incriminating evidence that might be used against attorney Donald V. Watkins, and Legal Schnauzer blogger Roger Shuler. These powerful databases serve as a “Google-style” search engine for law enforcement, allowing agencies to search the most private aspects of a person’s life.

Former ALEA [Alabama Law Enforcement Agency] staff and attorneys refused to cooperate with Bentley [shown in an official photo and also with Mason, as recorded by an anonymous photographer at an event at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC].

In a four part series entitled, “Forbidden Love – Robert Bentley’s Secret Love Affair,” Watkins wrote in detail about events which have now been confirmed by former State Law Enforcement Chief Spencer Collier and tapes discovered by al.com’s John Archibald.

Washington Post, Chief judge of the District’s federal court retires as lawsuit accuses him of sexual assault, Ann E. Marimow, March 16, 2016. The chief judge of the District’s federal court retired Wednesday, citing unspecified health issues that he said prevented him from continuing to serve on the bench. Chief Judge Richard W. Roberts’s early retirement came on the same day that a Utah woman filed a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing him of sexually assaulting her decades ago when she was a 16-year-old eyewitness in a high-profile murder case that Roberts was prosecuting.

Roberts, 63 (shown in an official photo), declined to comment on his retirement or the lawsuit, but his attorneys called the allegations “categorically false” and said Roberts intends to “vigorously challenge” the allegations in court.

His lawyers said the judge, who was unmarried at the time, had an intimate, consensual relationship with the woman that did not take place until after the end of the trial in which she testified.

Scalia's host, John B. Poindexter, the billionaire owner of J. B. Poindexter & Co. Inc. of Houston had an age discrimination case before the Supreme Court last year. Scalia was one of the judges who found in favor of Poindexter by refusing to hear the age discrimination case (Hinga, James V. Mic Group) and it appears that Scalia's "quail hunting" trip to Poindexter's Cibolo Creek Ranch was a payback for the Supreme Court's legal largesse. Poindexter admitted the free trip was a "gift" to Scalia.

Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), Cruz's close ties to New York's activist gay "Lavender Mafia," Wayne Madsen (shown as a young Naval officer at left), Feb. 1, 2016 (Subscription required; excerpted with permission). Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio appear to have more things in common than merely their Cuban heritage. After Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on GOP presidential hopeful Cruz, Cruz responded by questioning Trump's "New York values." Trump cautioned Cruz by saying that while the junior senator from Texas claimed he did not care for New York values, he certainly was willing to accept New York campaign contributions.

An examination of Cruz's financial support from New York yields close connections between the Christian evangelical, who has condemned homosexuality as a sin, and some of New York's top gay financiers and real estate moguls, all of whom are also major supporters of Israel. And one other "problem" for Cruz: there is a dead body involved.

After staking his political career on bashing equal rights for gays, including pushing for a constitutional amendment allowing states to ban gay marriage, on April 20, 2015, Cruz and his wife Heidi, a Goldman Sachs executive, were feted at a reception at the 230 Central Park South mega-townhouse of one of Manhattan's most well-known gay entrepreneurs, Ian Reisner, who was joined by his one-time partner, Mati Weiderpass.

Reisner is a co-founder of Parkview Developers and a former managing director of the Bank of America and derivatives trader for Salomon Brothers. Weiderpass is a military veteran and former marketing manager for Swatch. At the reception, Reisner, who, as of last year, was a registered Republican, handed Cruz a check for $2,700, the maximum amount permitted under federal election law. Reisner and Weiderpass previously donated to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Among Reisner's and Weiderpass's circle of friends is Ken Mehlman, the former Republican National Committee chairman who is also gay.

The 230 Central Park South location where a political reception attended by wealthy NY gays was held for Ted Cruz. Six months earlier it was also a possible crime scene where a young bar manager named Sean Verdi died under suspicious circumstances. Verdi was found unconscious in a bathtub in Reisner's townhouse, the same place where the Cruz reception was held. Verdi's social media pages referred to his fondness for parties in New York and Florida.

Palfrey Case Archive From Previous Years

Wayne Madsen Report, CIA simultaneously ran female and male prostitution escort services, Wayne Madsen, June 24, 2015. (Subscription required. Excerpted with permission). In a highly revealing new book Confessions of a DC Madam: The Politics of Sex, Lies, and Blackmail, (TrineDay Publishing) by Henry Vinson with Nick Bryant, the title may lead one to believe that the book is about the late Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the "DC Madam" whose Pamela Martin & Associates escort service ensnared for over a decade a number of DC's most powerful politicians with Palfrey's female escorts.

However, the memoirs of Vinson, another sort of "Madam," describe how his escort service for DC's powerful provided young men to satiate the homosexual desires of powerful leaders, including the then-director of the Central Intelligence Agency William Casey (shown in an official photo).

What Palfrey and Vinson had in common is that their escort services were used by the CIA to blackmail targeted politicians and diplomats in Washington, DC and New York. Vinson used his position as the funeral director of the W. W. Chambers funeral home in Washington, DC to provide a corporate cover for his gay escort service, the largest ever discovered to be operating in the nation's capital.

In his book, Vinson writes: "Given my former incarnation as a DC madam, I followed the tribulations, trial, and death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey with intense interest. I marveled at the striking similarities between our cases, and I empathized with her dire circumstances." Both Palfrey and Vinson were hit multiple federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act charges, Vinson with 43 counts and Palfrey with 14, in order to squeeze them financially and psychologically.

The inaptly-named Justice Department was more interested in protecting the nation's most powerful politicians than in upholding the law. In Vinson's case, they included Casey and George H. W. Bush and in Palfrey's case, Dick Cheney and CIA director Porter Goss. Vinson tends to agree with those who believe Palfrey was murdered in order to ensure her silence. WMR's investigation of the Palfrey "suicide" supports Vinson's contention.

Wayne Madsen Report, The tragic ends of the CIA's madams, Wayne Madsen, Dec. 16, 2014. (Subscription required. Excerpted with permission). Many readers may be familiar with the late "DC Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who reportedly committed "suicide" in 2008 prior to her revealing more details about her top flight clientele, which ranged from Vice President Dick Cheney to top officials of the Central Intelligence Agency. Most have likely never heard of Heide Rikan.

Decades before Palfrey arranged trysts, paid for by the CIA, between her Pamela Martin and Associates escorts and visiting Arab sheiks and foreign oil company executives, Rikan plied the same trade for Langley from her headquarters on the sixth floor of the Columbia Plaza apartment complex next door to the ill-famed Watergate hotel and condominium. Palfrey bought an apartment in East Berlin at a bargain basement price said to have been arranged by the number three CIA man, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who was later imprisoned for fraud. The apartment was reportedly a former CIA safe house that Foggo was ordered to sell.

According to the book White House Call Girl: The Real Watergate Story by Phil Stanford, Heide also used the name Kathie Dieter, especially when she was doing business with her Columbia Plaza business partner, one James McCord of McCord Associates. McCord was one of the burglars of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate and a top CIA surveillance expert.

McCord also happened to videotaped trysts between Heide's call girls and leading DC celebrities and politicians. It is not known who was actually taped and which tapes made their way into the hands of Richard Helms at the CIA but Heide's black book included two key members of the Senate Watergate Committee that was investigating the Nixon White House: Senator Lowell Weicker (R-CT) and Sam Dash, the Democratic counsel for the committee, whose unlisted phone number was in Heide's book. Also in Heide's black book was Nixon aide and chief committee witness against the president John Dean; Dean's wife, Maureen "Mo" Biner Dean (sometimes referred to with the code name of "Clout" in Heide's black book); Nixon aide Jeb Magruder; and a number of professional football players.

Associated Press via Fox News, Feds: Misconduct by CIA's Foggo spanned decades, Matthew Barakat, Feb. 25, 2009. A former CIA agent rose to the agency's No. 3 rank despite a record of misconduct that stretched over 20 years, prosecutors said, until his career came to an end with his conviction in a bribery scheme. In court papers, prosecutors describe how Kyle "Dusty" Foggo was investigated in the late 1980s for punching a bicyclist in a traffic dispute and for numerous relationships with foreign women that could have compromised security. Foggo rose through the ranks to become the agency's executive director from 2004 to 2006. Had his crimes gone uncovered, he planned to retire and run for Congress in San Diego, according to prosecutors.

Vanity Fair, The Oldest Profession, Vicky Ward, May 6, 2008. No Way to Treat a Lady. “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey played a risky game in catering to Washington’s power brokers with her upscale escort service. Her suicide, this month, marked a tragic—and not unexpected—end for a complicated woman who believed she was unfairly victimized. Having talked to Palfrey for months and spoken with her mother after her death, the author tells the whole story.

On May 4, ABC’s 20/20 featured Palfrey, and ABC news lead investigator Brian Ross claimed that Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, a married man, whose mandate included withholding grants from countries with legalized prostitution, had also hired Palfrey’s women. Tobias “was most embarrassed to receive the call,” according to Ross. He resigned the next day, admitting to paying for “massages,” but not for sex.

On May 1 [2008], the body of Deborah Jeane Palfrey was found hanging from a metal bar in a shed near the Tampa home of her mother, 76-year-old homemaker Blanche Palfrey. Police reports told of a notebook containing two suicide notes at the scene. Jeane, as she was called — she was better known as the “D.C. Madam” — had been convicted two weeks earlier in the U.S. District Court in Washington of racketeering, money laundering, and two counts of using the mail for illegal purposes.

For well over a year, Palfrey, 52, had been saying to the press, to supporters, to book publishers, to anyone who would listen, that she was going to set a precedent: unlike so many former madams who had fallen victim to the law — indeed, unlike Brandy Britton, a mother of two and former University of Maryland professor who had once worked as an escort for Palfrey and who killed herself, in January 2007, rather than face trial — she was going to win this fight. She refused to admit that her agency had been anything but a fantasy-sex service. If employees had had actual illicit sex, they had done so without her knowing, she claimed.

The name of the agency was Pamela Martin & Associates, and, according to at least two of the young women who worked for it, it was well known to be the highest-quality operation of its kind in Washington, D.C., thanks to Palfrey’s professionalism. In her brisk, businesslike telephone manner, Palfrey, who ran the service from her home, in Vallejo, California, would demand that employees dress smartly in a style that reflected her own penchant for neat pantsuits, sensible heels, and discreet jewelry — what she called the “Ann Taylor look.” She stipulated that they not drink or take drugs during appointments and that they be punctual. Her “gals,” as she called them, had to be over 23, and they had to have college degrees and day jobs.

Wayne Madsen Report, Michael Mukasey – will you help me? Guest column by Jeane Palfrey, Oct. 27, 2007 (From subscription service and excerpted with permission). The combination of selective prosecution, a politically sensitive clientele and an extended surveillance period points to a matter, which has less to do with the goings-on of an alleged prostitution ring than it does with spying activities involving a constitutionally protected, American citizen. As I often have stated, my case has something to do with something, but it sure as heck has very little, if anything to do with a small-time escort business. My case -- had it been more customary in nature -- would have been under the sole purview of the state courts and never entered the federal realm.

I rather suspect that as time marches on, with it will come a multitude of eye-opening disclosures, which will call into question further the practices of the DOJ, the past several years. I believe my case is part and parcel of any such coming revelations. That is of course, if the newly appointed Attorney General – be it Bush nominee, Judge Michael Mukasey or another – chooses to do right by us, the American people; to ally with us and not the current administration. For me in my politically charged case, such a decision by the future Attorney General holds particular weight; quite possibly, whether or not I will spend the remainder of my natural life behind bars or as a free person.

Nonetheless as I begin my second year combating the beast, I do so with significant hope. After a full twelve months of being stonewalled at every twist and turn along the way, including access to discovery materials, by the assigned Assistant U.S. Attorneys -- my counsel, Mr. Montgomery B. Sibley, a small band of interested third parties and I have pieced together sufficient reason to believe my case -- simply put -- is rotten to the core.

Since the Government for all intents and purposes has run out of tactical maneuvers to prohibit me from uncovering the truth any longer, I anticipate exposure of considerable wrongdoing by the DOJ, in short order. Additionally, the fact Alberto Gonzales, perhaps one of the most dishonest and politically aligned attorney generals in U.S. history, the very one who has reigned over my specific case this last year has resigned – leaves open the hope that his predecessor may correct the direction of a wayward and seemingly corrupt Justice Department and in its wake my increasingly frightening tale of woe.

"Nine years later, I discovered the phone number of U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA), another right-wing hypocrite, in the private telephone records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called "D.C. Madam" with whom I had worked on a book about her life and times prior to her tragic suicide in 2008."

ABC News, 'D.C. Madam' Client Ready to Testify About Sex, Brian Ross, May 9, 2007. One of the prominent Washington men named as an escort service customer of the so-called "D.C. Madam" is apparently ready to testify he had sex with a woman or women from the madam's now-infamous Pamela Martin and Associates. A lawyer for Harlan Ullman, a renowned military analyst and Washington Times columnist, says his client won't back down if he is called to testify by Jeane Palfrey, who prosecutors say ran an illegal prostitution ring for 13 years.

Palfrey maintains her service did nothing illegal and only provided "fantasy, legal sex," which does not include intercourse of any kind or oral sex. "Any notion that Ms. Palfrey has that Mr. Ullman will help her in any way is incorrect," said Ullman's lawyer, Mark Mukasey, in a statement to the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Previously, Ullman had told reporters that the allegation he used Palfrey's service was "beneath the dignity of comment." When informed of Ullman's new stance, Palfrey told ABC News the former Rumsfeld colleague could be prosecuted along with her. "If Mr. Ullman committed illegal acts, he can be charged with racketeering as well, since he would be a part of the overall conspiracy the government is alleging," Palfrey said. "It takes two to tango."

Ullman was named by Palfrey in court papers and in public statements outside the courthouse earlier this week. Phone records provided to ABC News by Palfrey show Ullman was a repeat customer, who Palfrey says was known by her women as "Mr. U" and is well-remembered. "He was a disagreeable character," Palfrey says, "and there were some complaints about him." She said some of the women refused to service him a second time "because he was an unpleasant person."

Palfrey has rejected an offer from federal prosecutors to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for a four-month prison term. "I told them to go to hell with their deal," Palfrey said, "and instead will call my clients to testify in my defense."

ABC News, Senior Official Linked to Escort Service Resigns, Brian Ross and Justin Rood, May 2, 2007. Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation.

Tobias, 65, director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the ambassador for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief. A State Department press release late Friday afternoon said only he was leaving for "personal reasons."

On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.

Associated Press via CBSNews, Alleged "D.C. Madam" Names A Name, Amy Clark, April 13, 2007. A woman charged with running a prostitution ring in the nation's capital made good on her threat to identify high-profile clients, listing a military strategist known for his "shock and awe" combat theories as a regular customer in court documents Thursday. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who is acting as her own attorney, said Harlan K. Ullman, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, "is only one of dozens of such officials" who will be exposed as she prepares her defense.

Ullman declined to talk about the claim in a brief telephone interview with the Associated Press Thursday night, saying "the allegations are beneath the dignity of a comment."

The 50-year-old Palfrey was indicted last month by a federal grand jury on charges of running a high-class call girl ring from her home in Vallejo, Calif. She has denied the escort service engaged in prostitution.

In court records, prosecutors estimate that her business, Pamela Martin and Associates, generated more than $2 million in revenue over 13 years, with more than 130 women employed at various times to serve thousands of clients at $200 to $300 a session. Palfrey had threatened to sell phone records that would identify 10,000 clients to pay for her criminal defense, but a federal judge ordered her not to release them. But Palfrey gave them to ABC News before the order took effect. Since federal officials have seized her assets in a civil case involving the business, Palfrey argued in court papers Thursday for the judge to reconsider her request for $500,000 to hire an attorney to replace the public defender.

She contends that she needs a high-profile attorney because of the powerful forces that are lined up against her and her need to subpoena Ullman and others. Palfrey hopes the customers will testify on her behalf that her escorts did not engage in prostitution. Prosecutors have accused Palfrey of trying to intimidate potential witnesses by exposing them publicly. Ullman's lawyer, Mike [sic, mistaken for Marc] Mukasey, also declined comment, saying the allegations do not deserve a response.

Ullman was the primary author of a 1996 report that coined the phrase "shock and awe," which calls for a massive attack of precision air power that psychologically destroys an enemy's will to fight as much as it destroys the physical ability to fight. Palfrey said she has 46 pounds of phone records that could expose thousands of clients. Her civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said he gave those records to ABC so it could assist in identifying clients who could testify on her behalf. ABC said it plans to air a story on Palfrey on its prime-time news program "20/20" next month.

Selected Columns On Ted Cruz Background

Justice Integrity Project, Cruz Birthplace, Secret Loans Undermine His Presidential Run, Andrew Kreig, Jan. 31, 2016. Attacks on Ted Cruz’s eligibility for the presidency have seriously undermined his campaign in the crucial days before the Feb. 1 caucuses in Iowa. Today, we describe that eligibility as an open question that cannot be resolved easily, in part because the Cruz campaign is withholding the facts about his birth in Canada that are necessary for clear-cut resolution. We explore also recent revelations that the first term Texas senator’s won his upset victory in his 2012 campaign with the help of $1.2 million in Goldman Sachs and Citigroup loans that he failed to report as required by federal election law.

Ad

Get New Articles by Email

News Reports

Note: Excerpts are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes" such as this.

May 25

Washington Post, New electoral maps for Ohio and Michigan can wait, Supreme Court says, Robert Barnes, May 25, 2019 (print ed.). While they consider the question of partisan gerrymandering, the justices put lower-court decisions finding those states’ maps unconstitutional on hold. The Supreme Court on Friday put on hold lower-court decisions that said Ohio and Michigan had to come up with new electoral maps because of unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.

The decision was not surprising, because the justices are currently considering whether judges should even have a role in policing partisan gerrymandering. There were no noted dissents in the orders for either state.

The Supreme Court in March heard arguments in similar cases from North Carolina, where judges found that Republicans had manipulated congressional maps to their advantage, and from Maryland, where Democratic lawmakers redrew a district that resulted in a loss for a longtime Republican congressman.

While the Supreme Court regularly examines redistricting plans for signs of racial gerrymandering, it has never found a state’s plan so infected with partisan politics that it violates the rights of voters. The decision in the North Carolina and Maryland cases are expected before the end of June.

With the decisions from Ohio and Michigan, federal courts in five states have struck down maps as partisan gerrymanders. The courts in the Ohio and Michigan decisions ordered the states to come up with new maps that could be used in the 2020 elections.

May 24

UK's May Will Leave June 7

New York Times, Theresa May, Undone by Brexit, Will Step Down as Prime Minister, Stephen Castle, May 24, 2019. Mrs. May said she would resign after almost three years of trying and failing to lead Britain out of the European Union. Her departure is likely to set off a vicious contest to succeed her within the governing Conservative Party. Facing a cabinet rebellion, Theresa May announced on Friday morning her decision to leave office. She spoke briefly after meeting with Graham Brady, a powerful leader of backbench Conservative lawmakers.

Standing in front of 10 Downing Street, Mrs. May, shown in a file photo at right, said it was in the “best interests of the country for a new prime minister” to lead Britain through the Brexit process. She announced plans to step down as the leader of the Conservative Party on June 7, with the process to replace her beginning the following week.

“I feel as certain today as I did three years ago that in a democracy, if you give people a choice you have a duty to implement what they decide. I have done my best to do that,” she added. “I have done everything I can to convince MPs to back that deal. Sadly, I have not been able to do so.”

Conservative lawmakers have been deeply frustrated by Mrs. May’s failure to deliver on Brexit, which became the government’s central — some would say its sole — preoccupation after the country voted to leave the union in a 2016 referendum.

But the breaking point has come at an awkward moment, with President Trump scheduled to arrive in Britain on June 3 for a state visit and to take part in events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings that preceded the end of World War II.

Trump Empowers Barr for "Spying" Probe

New York Times, Trump Gives Attorney General Sweeping Power in Review of 2016 Campaign Inquiry, Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt, May 24, 2019 (print ed.). The directive gives Mr. Barr immense leverage over the intelligence community and enormous power over what the public learns about the roots of the Russia investigation. President Trump took extraordinary steps on Thursday to give Attorney General William P. Barr, right, sweeping new authorities to conduct a review into how the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia were investigated, significantly escalating the administration’s efforts to place those who investigated the campaign under scrutiny.

In a directive, Mr. Trump ordered the C.I.A. and the country’s 15 other intelligence agencies to cooperate with the review and granted Mr. Barr the authority to unilaterally declassify their documents. The move — which occurred just hours after the president again declared that those who led the investigation committed treason — gave Mr. Barr immense leverage over the intelligence community and enormous power over what the public learns about the roots of the Russia investigation.

The order is a change for Mr. Trump, who last year dropped a plan to release documents related to the Russia ...

Mission Statement

Andrew Kreig's Twitter

Broadcast

Broadcast and lecture audiences can count on the Project's director to deliver blunt, entertaining and cutting-edge commentary about public affairs, with practical tips for the millions of Americans caught up in unfair litigation or regulation.

Based in Washington, DC, Andrew Kreig is an accomplished fighter for the public interest. Learn from his decades of reporting, analysis and advocacy:

• Shocking tales of recent corruption, deception and cover-up by both parties in communities ranging from small towns to world capitals; and• Practical how-to tips for reformers on action that brings real-world results.

Midnight Writer News Podcast,'Presidential Puppetry' with Andrew Kreig, Host S.T. Patrick, Dec. 19, 2018 (Episode 105). Andrew Kreig, the director of the Justice Integrity Project and the author of Presidential Puppetry, joins S.T. Patrick to discuss presidential politics of the last 40 years. What should we have known about George H.W. Bush, Bill & Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, John Kerry, John Edwards, and John McCain?

Kreig takes a non-partisan approach to dissecting the pros, cons, misdeeds, and motivations of American presidential and vice-presidential candidates, dating back decades. In the interview, Kreig covers the Bush dynasty, why Reagan chose Bush in 1980, Bush and the October Surprise, the Willie Horton ad, The Election of 1992, Ross Perot’s deficiencies, what Fletcher Prouty still teaches us, the legitimacy of Bob Dole’s 1996 nomination, the value of Jack Kemp, Bush v Gore, The Two Johns: Kerry & Edwards, the real John McCain, and much more.

Kreig also discusses current events with us, including the Corsi/Stone vs Mueller situation and the unbelievable resolution of the Jeffery Epstein trial in Palm Beach. Andrew Kreig can be read and followed at the Justice Integrity Project.

Wiki Politiki, The Latest REAL News on the 9/11 Attacks and Finding Truth in a Sea of Lies, Steve Bhaerman, Dec. 18, 2018. An Interview with Andrew Kreig, Author, Attorney, Broadcaster and Founder of the Justice Integrity Project. Did you know that In a letter dated November 7, 2018, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York notified the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry that he would comply with the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3332 requiring him to present to a special grand jury the Lawyers’ Committee’s reports filed earlier this year of unprosecuted federal crimes at the World Trade Center?

You didn’t? That’s because mainstream media makes it its business to insure that anything that points to the nefarious doings of the real deep state is “none of its business.” The misinformation, disinformation and missing information that pollute corporate news have created the perfect field for “real” fake news to flourish.